This large paperback collection tells the story of three different warriors of Black Templar, one of many chapters of Space Marines in the Imperium of Man. Brother Gerhart is well respected Battle Brother, but some believe that he seeks too much glory, while Neophyte Raclaw is a new recruit, from a barbarian planet, who is trying to prove his worth to his master and the Emperor. Lastly is the Dreadnaught Tankred, a venerable warrior, whose body is gone but his mind and essence is placed in a living sarcophagus-of-sorts, and is made into an engine of destruction, one which is rarely called on, unless the circumstances are dire. This story skips between the three protagonists, showing us different battles and military engagements, but never really giving us a sense of when these events occur or if, somehow our three heroes will ever meet. There are a lot of battles and many different enemies, from Xenos to Chaos, and our three heroes do their duty and protect mankind from these threats. It isn’t until the last issue that you come to understand that the three heroes will never meet, because they are the same individual, and that this story is being told out of order, hoping between the different time periods. Raclaw is his name when he was a barbarian and a neophyte and when he becomes a full-fledged Battle Brother, is takes his fallen master’s name of Gerhart and when he is grievously wounded, he is preserved and placed in a Dreadnaught and become Tankred and continues his service to the Emperor.

Wow, I did not see this ending coming! I had expected that the three separate stories would merge at some point, but I never guessed that they were all the same Space Marine. Up until the ending this was only an alright story, focusing heavily on battle with many different confrontations at that. The art is great, better than expected, because I’ve heard that some of the Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 comics can be “hard on the eyes”.

I can not recommend this collection enough! I you love 40K or enjoy unique science-fiction, then this is the book for you. If I had two complaints about this collection, is that, first, the issues aren’t clearly defined, but if you’ve every read a comic or a comic collection, they you can probably guess where each issues ends and begins and second, you don’t get any additional content such as a cover gallery or behind the scenes art, but what you do get for $15 is well worth it. If they released this in a collector’s edition with some additional content and a hardcover, I would most certainly buy it!

I was able to find some of the covers online, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see them!

I believe that this is the first graphic novel I’ve read from The Black Library. This story takes place in the Warhammer 40K universe, specifically during the Horus Heresy. This book features computer-assisted, digital art, which fits the source material.

This particular graphic novel eithers takes place during or after the Horus Hersey novel, Know No Fear, as part of that book starts off the story. Within the hardcover, is the story of the vessel, Macragge’s Honour, and it’s brave crew, who track an enemy vessel and it’s wounded commander in order to end the madness that attacked their planet. The brave Ultramarines of Macragge’s Honour have to face the terrors of the Warp, which include deamons and foul sorcery. The ship battle is intense, but one Ultramarine has to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save the day!

I loved this graphic novel! While it is pricy, if you’re a fan of intense sci-fi action and the Warhammer 40K universe, then this book is for you. You do need some basic knowledge of the source material to help you along, but it’s nothing that can’t be learned with one or two Google searches. The art is beautiful and fits the oversized hardcover well. Here is a sample of one of the space battles!

At the end of the book, you get some art sketches and some of the scripting for the story, which adds a bit more value to this hardcover.

Maybe it’s my love of Warhammer 40K that sways me, but I really feel that this hardcover is worth your time and money!

While comic books are my first, great love, with in the last 15 years, I’ve become an avid tabletop roleplayer! I’ve “Game Mastered” more than I’ve played, but I’m not complaining. For those of you unfamiliar with gaming lingo, a Game Master is the person who is “controlling” the game. They create the world and act as all of the game’s NPCs, or non-player characters, be them good or bad. While I usually run Dungeons & Dragons, my current campaign just ended, so before heading into something long term, I going to run a short, maybe two session X-Men game. Usually, I let my players choose the characters they want to play, but this time I chose the characters for them, hoping to expand their horizons, by making them play someone they never would. The characters that I’ve chosen: Cyclops, Bishop, Wolfsbane and Gambit, are shown above.

What do you think about choosing your player’s characters? Have you ever roleplayed? Roleplayed anything superhero? Let me know!

This is my owlbear companion, Gary (yes, if you know ANYTHING about D&D, then he’s named after THAT Gary)! My friend LadyB, made this little guy for me for Christmas, because she knows that I’m absolutely crazy for owlbears. She also started this June event called DunJUNE, where we celebrate Dungeons and Dragons.

I know! I haven’t post anything in months and now I’m posting something unrelated to comics, but (owl)bear with me. I’m trying to get back into the swing of things and will alter my content to include EVERYTHING I love: comics, gaming, Star Trek, Warhammer 40K, and many others.

So, as Gary kicks off DunJUNE, expect to see more of him and more from me in the coming days and months. I may not be back at my full posting power, but I’ll get there!